Well, I'm officially in love with Paris and Jeff even admitted he likes it!
It was really hard to get up at 6:45 this morning, but we had lots to do today. We had breakfast in our very chic hotel restaurant and it was tres yummy. Then Henri, our tour guide for the morning, picked us up and drove us to Versailles. He showed us many of the landmarks we've heard of and told us interesting random facts all the way to the palace. We drove all over the grounds of Versailles, then with our special passes we got to cut to the front of the very long line (there must have been 75 buses parked in the bus lot) for our guided tour of the palace and gardens. Wow! It was an incredible morning. We went back to the hotel a different way, so we got to see more of the city with Henri.
Jeff and I went to a cute market and bought a little bottle of wine, went to a sandwich shop and got a baguette sandwich and salad, then went to the Seine and got on a boat. The weather was beautiful and we ate our picnic while cruising on the river.....how neat is that! Then we continued to sit on the boat with our travel book and mapped out where we will go the next few days.
After our boat excursion, we walked through Jardin des Tuileries which is French for a really pretty garden area. Since the weather was so nice, there were tons of people laying in the grass, sitting on benches, taking pictures (that's us!) and picnicing. The people-watching is awesome here. And the fashions are really interesting, both in the store windows and on people walking the streets of Paris.....so very different from Scotland!
We attempted to tour the Grand Palace, but after walking a very long way to get there, we found it was closed. But there was so much to see along the way, it was not a big disappointment. Then we went to the Hotel des Invalides which really isn't a hotel at all, but a beautiful place built for wounded soldiers of the late 17th century. Inside is a gorgeous church, Napoleon is buried there and it has a lovely garden. The golden dome is the subject of several of our pictures today and tonight.
We walked around another area of the city where there are scores of gorgeous apartments, all about 6 stories high with wrought iron balconies, just oozing with French charm. The wrought iron on one building is different from the next.....how many different patterns can there be? On each corner was a brasserie with people packed in the outdoor seating, enjoying the great weather and delicious cuisine. We bought another little bottle of wine (not to worry, we each get one small glass per bottle!) and another yummy sandwich and tucked it in our backpack, and made our way to the Eiffel Tower about 7 p.m. We thought we would be in line longer, but it moved quickly. We went to the first stop (pretty high up) and had our picnic supper watching the sun set on Paris.....how fun is that! We just hung around there waiting for it to get dark, so we were there a couple of hours. We got our money's worth with those tickets! Just as it started getting dark, we rode to the very top. It was really an awesome sight to watch it go from twilight to dark with all of the city's lights sparkling. If I had a Euro for every kiss we saw at the Eiffel Tower tonight, I'd be able to get that great Louis Vuitton purse I saw in a store window!
Click here for today's pictures. Click on Slideshow, then click on Full Screen mode in upper right.
1 comment:
AWWWWW that sounds like so much fun!! Maybe you could go back in a year or so and take your favorite eldest daughter and her hubby! :) hehe!
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